MrBeast builds a school in a small town in Mexico

The American YouTuber Jimmy Donaldson, known as MrBeast, uploaded a 16-minute video this weekend in which he shows off having built 10 schools in Africa, Asia, and the Americas at a total cost of $3 million. One of them was in the small town of San Andrés Tepetitlán, in the municipality of Almoloya de Alquisiras, in the State of Mexico, about 87 miles (140 km) west of Mexico City. According to Donaldson, the high school is the first in the town’s history.

The project was carried out with Fundación Televisa, Fundación Construyendo México, the Mexican comedian and actor Eugenio Derbez, and the construction company Covintec, in coordination with the local government. “The mayor [of Almoloya], Brenda Angélica Rivera Abarca, has widely recognized Jimmy Donaldson and Eugenio Derbez for allowing us to be part of their logistics and get involved in this altruistic and humane project that undoubtedly guarantees higher quality, warmer, and more accessible education,” Rivera said in a Facebook post. This newspaper contacted the local government and the foundations, but at the time of publication, no response had been received.

During the video, Donaldson explains that the lack of classrooms in San Andrés Tepetitlán meant that the same school had to be shared by middle school and high school students, and it was for this reason that the YouTuber decided to carry out the project in the town. The segment showing the construction process in Mexico begins at minute nine and ends at minute 11: in just two minutes, we see the walls being built, an office for the school principal, and some young people breaking in the soccer field. “You’re going to make me cry,” says the principal. “Thank you, Jimmy.”

It is unclear what Derbez’s role is: he appears briefly in the video, his voice is heard about three times off-screen, and, in general, he seems more like a supporting actor. However, he feels blessed; he wrote on social media: “Huge respect to MrBeast for making this happen. Honored to be part of something that reminds us that education changes lives.”

This is not the first time the Mexican actor has appeared in one of the influencer’s videos. In January of this year, MrBeast posted a video on his YouTube channel lasting more than 40 minutes in which various celebrities compete to win a million dollars.

The comedian made it to the final eight but was eliminated by Stephen Gilchrist Glover, known as Steve-O, a man who rose to fame for performing dangerous or ridiculous stunts on the show Jackass in 2000. It was Steve-O who ultimately won the prize.

Derbez posted a video on YouTube on Friday, February 20, in which he recounts his experience in this competition. “I knew it required a lot of strength and agility, and the truth is that it scared me. I asked everyone what to do, and their first reactions were, ‘Go for it,’” says the actor and comedian. He also says he decided to participate because his 11-year-old daughter, Aitana, asked him to.

Derbez didn’t have much screen time in this video either. He himself admits that he entered the challenge with the goal of winning. “My daughter told me, ‘Dad, don’t lose,’” he says, and with this mindset, he forgot about the cameras and the show.

In addition to Mexico, MrBeast built schools in Ghana, where they remodeled one building, erected two more, built a couple of apartments for two teachers who were taking up to an hour to get to work, provided clean water to the community, and, according to the YouTuber, committed to providing students with a daily lunch for the next five years.

The other countries where the project was carried out are Kenya, Ecuador, India, and the United States, where no school as such was built, but rather a special playground was created for a school with neurodivergent students.

MrBeast has published content about Mexico before. In May 2025, Donaldson uploaded a video in which he visits the archaeological sites of Calakmul and Chichén Itzá in Yucatán; these sites are not open to the public, nor is climbing the pyramids allowed. The post sparked controversy between the then director of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), Diego Priego, and the head of the Ministry of Culture, Claudia Curiel Icaza, which led to Prieto’s resignation a month later.

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